Saturday, 6 June 2015

The Longish day

Today, being the 6th of June, we just had to do a Normandy WW2 skirmish!The scenario involved several dispersed elements of the 101st Airborne trying to seize a farmhouse blocking their way to their real objective for D-Day.The players had a random force - and would arrive on the table edge at random points, in any of the first 6 turns of the game.The random chart I had designed for the scenario was optimised to produce forces of 6-10 men. Unfortunately, I agreed to add another die roll to the process which left 2 of the players, myself included, with only 2 and 4 respectively!Dice will always mess you up, won't they!

The Farmhouse, commanding the road to our objective.

Rod had 3 riflemen, a 30 cal MG team, a Lieutenant and a radio operator. He arrived first on the South table edge, behind a wood.

He moved his group through the wood to observe any German positions.

At first, only sandbagged defences were visible...

Next to arrive, behind Rod, were my paltry 2 men! - however, one had a 60mm mortar and the other a 30 cal!

Lawrence's 4 men arrived next, on the East edge...

...and sprinted across the open ground to cover.

Ian arrived with a large force on the North-East corner.

He proceeded through the woods towards the farmhouse.

Back in the south, my men joined Rod, and he gave me his radio operator to be my mortar's number 2. (His radio was up the fritz anyway!)

Rod's riflemen finally spotted a group of Germans in the defences!

...and a heavy machine gun covering the road.

Ian, meanwhile, emerged from the wood directly in front of another (blissfully unaware) group of Germans.

They were shot to pieces by riflemen...

...then wiped out by the machine gun.

The Germans in front of Rod were more alert, and opened fire on my men as they crossed the road down the road.

Fortunately, though shaken by the fire, my mortar team reached cover safely!

Ian, having beaten his opponents, sent his men round the North side of the farm on a wide outflanking move.

Lawrence's men followed the road keeping to cover.

Rod's men, meanwhile, engaged the Germans who were harassing me!

The Germans were taken by surprise.

My gunner joined in the firefight too, at long range.

The German fire-team was soon silenced, but the HMG had turned in support of them and engaged Rod.

One of Rod's men was wounded.

My mortar team came under fire from a ruin to their rear, to which they responded...

...very effectively!

The survivors retreated from their position and left the table.

My mortar men now came under fire from the farmhouse...

...and one of my men was wounded.

The confident Germans attacked my position, firing as they came.

My men were forced to retreat from this attack...

The Germans now advanced over my previous position.

My men were waiting for them!

The mortar pinned them...

Unable to reply, some good shooting eliminated them.

Rod was still shooting at the HMG, and it was soon silenced.

Ian now engaged another group of Germans.

The Germans, only aware of the small group at the woods edge attacked effectively.

They were soon repulsed by the rest of Ian's men!

My 3 men, having survived one attack, now moved back to their rock.

They were greeted with fire from another half squad!

My men were lucky, and escaped harm. They returned fire.

The 60mm mortar was again effective!

The Germans held their ground though.

Then they attacked, only to be hit by the mortar again.

Meanwhile, Rod's riflemen were filtering down the side of the farm, and spotted the German command group.

The Germans suppressed Rod's men with a rifle grenade round.

Ian's men, having seen off the Germans in the field now advanced on the now undefended farm rear.

My men were still engaging the group of Germans in the field...

...and were now joined by some of Ian's men from the rear.

The Germans, surrounded, now were swiftly beaten.

A German SDKFZ 250 from the farm courtyard now attacked, only to lose its gunner to lucky small arms fire.

Ian's men now stormed the farm.

...and watched as the surviving Germans made their escape!

In the end, it was a fairly easy victory for the American forces, the German force was weaker than it might have been! Randomly, we had discarded only 2 dummy markers! 2 more MG teams, as well as a patrol of armoured vehicles supported by a full section on infantry in a Hanomag failed to make an appearance!